Source: Scholastic/National Road Safety Foundation
Scholastic, in partnership with the National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF), is hosting a Drive2Life contest for students in grades 6–12 to help bring awareness to distracted walking.
What is distracted walking?
Distracted walking happens when pedestrians choose to talk, text or listen to music with headphones while walking, limiting their awareness of oncoming traffic, other pedestrians or obstacles they are likely to encounter.
“Distracted walking can have serious or even deadly consequences for pedestrians who are not watching where they’re going or listening to traffic. Pedestrian fatalities are on the rise, and pedestrian cellphone-related injuries have more than doubled since 2005, according to an Ohio State University study” (Scholastic/National Road Safety Foundation).
To help educators introduce this serious issue, Scholastic has also provided three lessons:
- Distracted Walking = Dangerous Walking – Test your students’ knowledge of pedestrian safety and introduce them to the dangers of distracted walking with a quiz.
- Do You Walk Smart? – Challenge students to evaluate their own walking habits and use their feedback to launch a discussion about pedestrian safety.
- Plan Your PSA – In this lesson, students will create their own PSA storyboards. Students will use the experiences from this unit as a springboard for planning their Drive2Life contest entries on preventing distracted walking.
It is not necessary for teachers to have a video editing background or equipment for students to participate, as this is a script writing/storyboarding contest. To enter the contest, an individual student in grades 6–12 must create a storyboard or written script on 8.5 x 11-inch paper for a 30-second public service announcement (PSA) to help prevent distracted walking. Only individual entries will be accepted—no group entries.
The Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a trip to New York City (accompanied by a parent or a legal guardian if under 18) to work with a director to turn his or her vision into a 30-second PSA.
This is a wonderful opportunity for students to add “national recognition” to their digital portfolios while addressing a potentially life-threatening issue.
Link to contest details, rules, entry forms and lessons
Entries must be postmarked by February 5, 2016, and received by February 19, 2016.
We would love to showcase your students’ storyboards or scripts. Please let us know if you plan to work this contest into your teaching.
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